October Sky Film Analysis

Coal Mining

Within the movie “October Sky” or the book “Rocket Boys” there is a lot of Coal mining that is relevant throughout the entire timeline. There are many examples of this within the movie and book. The entire town they live in is a mining town and the main characters father was the head of the mine. Therefore, Mining is very important to the story as well as the rest of the country during the 50’s and 60’s.
The town of Coalwood is the main setting of the movie. It is of course a coal-mining town. This town can only survive by mining from the ground the coal that lies in the mines beneath it. In this specific time period, from the Civil War era to the 1950’s, coal was the main source of energy throughout the country. Though, as you could see in the movie, the mine was running dry. It is true that after the 60’s other fuels took over coal in the competition.

Without coal they would have no homes of jobs. For a normal, non-mining family coal was important to cook and stay warm. The entire country used it to produce and work to create an economy. Without coal at this time we may not have had a stable economy.
You can see in the movie the importance of the coal in Coalwood. The fathers life is almost completely devoted to the mine and almost every kid expects to be sent down there to work. The entire town has ties to the mine, as those who also own the mine own the town itself. But no matter what coal is very important to everyone in the United States during the mid